Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 20, 1995 TAG: 9506210046
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Del. Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs, said Monday the debate will be taken up by a subcommittee of the Blue Ridge Economic Development Commission - a group of 11 lawmakers and 12 residents who study regional policy issues.
The group will debate setting a threshold wage of $16,000 per year, or $7.69 hourly, on the Major Facility Job Tax Credit, which awards tax breaks to expanding companies and certain outfits that are new to the state.
Deeds, as head of the commission, pushed unsuccessfully during the last General Assembly to establish $16,000 as the minimum wage employers had to pay to receive the corporate income tax credit. The credit is worth $1,000 for each new job created over 100.
The tax credit would have become the first business incentive in Virginia that stipulated how much a company had to pay before the state would invest in its growth.
``The idea was, a job is a job as long as it's pretty good-paying,'' said John Garka, a manager in the state Division of Legislative Services who assists the commission.
In addition, the Blue Ridge region bill would have lowered to 50 the number of new jobs a company needed to create before it could earn the tax credit, but the bill died before coming up for a major vote.
The new subcommittee will consider reworking the bill in time to reintroduce it during January's legislative session, or it could recommend reintroducing the old version, Deeds said.
``I'm not in favor of handouts to business or buying businesses,'' Deeds said. ``I don't mind tax breaks that are tied to job creation.''
The incentives subcommittee, to be led by Dels. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, and Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, also will brainstorm for new ways to help Blue Ridge region companies export their goods and services.
by CNB